Fast Marina Magazine

Dear fellow Marina-ists.
We had a fabulous weekend trip of about 1000k to the far reaches of this island - it was tremendous fun, and the car ran perfectly.
However - with a few gravel roads to contend with...



.. I was continually reminded of the shortcomings of the original front shock absorbers.
I have decided to try and arrange a telescopic conversion along the lines of the Ital.
Can anyone supply any photos or drawings of either the Ital fittings - or any other conversions so that I might be able to copy them please..?
I would also be happy to purchase any of those parts too.

Thanks folks.

Kilroy,

Checkout my website www.marinacoupe.co.uk. I have had drawn up the plans for a top bracket and the Ital bottom bracket. The dims are shown, although they were drawn full size (1:1), don't trust the scaling as the picture creation process distorts the sizes.

Kilroy, have a look in the classifieds section on here as v6pop has put a set up for sale and there is a drawing asttatched

Thanks guys - a great help.

Chris - the drawing for the lower bracket does not work for me. Some problem with the pdf file maybe..?

Cheers,
Kilroy

Hi Kilroy

Page 2 is the flat version for cutting and page 1 is the dims when welded up. All dims taken from the bracket in the picture.

What is it that you don't get mate?

No worries Chris.
For some reason my web browser would not load the pdf file yesterday - today it does..
Good work - thankyou.
Will see if I can copy these - well, at least get someone else to.

Cheers.

I have a Tele kit fitted on the front of my 76 Marina Coupe , if you need photo's I can take some the weekend.

Regards

Martin

Martin
Any photos would be much appreciated - thanks.
Being as a picture's worth a thousand words...

has any one had the lower bracket snap on the ital set up and has any one made up a better one ??

Marinamadbaz, showed me a broken bottom bracket a couple of years ago, it was off a car he had recently bought. The cause was a combination of rust and the securing bolts being loose allowing it to flap and causing stress fractures until it failed. It had broken at the 90 degree fold, where the horizontal plate drops down to fit over the rear of the tie bar yoke bolt.

The bracket was beyond repair, and really had been caused by lack of rust protection and sloppy maintainance. As far as a fix is concerned, I'm not sure that it was fixable, a good used replacement was the order of the day.

I suppose if you were making some up, then you could fabricate it in heavier metal, but you can't brace the fold as the inside wraps round the suspension arm.

I have taken some photo's of the telescopic conversion on my coupe, no idea how to put them up on the site , can someone help please.

Regards

Martin

Martin
You need to post the photos on a website then link them to your post - so you need to engage one of the free services who offer this.
Failing that - email them to me and I will put them on my website and link them to the forum.
My direct email address is kilroy'at'ihug.co.nz
Cheers.

Thanks to Martin - here are some photos of another conversion kit.
These make it very clear that the top mount is over the top of the shock absorber - something that had not been clear for me until now.
I prefer the later lower mount - which will give more deflection to the telescopic shock for movement of the lower arm.

Hi Kilroy here are some pictures of my Ital Tele dampers as factory fitted


BOTTOM BRACKET

BOTTOM BRACKET

BOTTOM BRACKET note stainless steel tie bars

BOTTOM BRACKET
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BOTTOM BRACKET


If you want any other pictures let me know as the front is in bits now and easy to get at !
Cheers
Steve

Thanks Steve
Yours appears to be the pukka Ital setup yes..?
I can see that the top arm is just a pivot - wonder if Martin's original shock still works - or if the valve has been removed..?
I see that the lower arm is different too - with an extension for the lower shock mount to bolt through.
Is this standard Ital..?
This is great stuff - I have a much better idea of how and where now - just have to acquire the bits.
Thanks again all.
Kilroy